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AUBURN UNIVERSITY – Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose.org, will provide the keynote address for the Women’s Philanthropy Board 2014 Spring Symposium and Luncheon on Monday, April 7, at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center.

At DonorsChoose.org, public school teachers post classroom project requests and donors pick the projects they want to support. Donors receive photographs and thank you letters from the classroom he or she chose to help.

Best’s presentation will cap off the day’s events which include a morning symposium featuring three professionals from the fields of economics, finance and health care. Speakers and topics include Lesley McClure, regional executive and vice president, Birmingham branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, who will present “2014 Economic Outlook and an Overview of the Federal Reserve Bank”; Avalere Health Executive Vice President Tanisha Carino and Manager John Linnehan who will present “The Future of Healthcare: The Impact of Obamacare”; and Janet Bodnar, editor of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, who will present “Sustaining Legacies: Gender, Wealth, and Giving.”

Tickets for the luncheon are required and can be purchased by calling the Women’s Philanthropy Board office at (334) 844-9156 or by visiting www.humsci.auburn.edu/wpb.

Individual tickets are $90 and reserved tables of 10 are available in the following price structure: Gold Table, $1,200; Platinum Table, $2,500; and Diamond Table, $5,000.

DonorsChoose.org. has received the Amazon.com Nonprofit Innovation Award and been selected by the TechCrunch community as the website “most likely to make the world a better place.” Oprah Winfrey named the site as one of her “Ultimate Favorite Things” in 2010. Fast Company listed it as one of the “50 Most Innovative Companies in the World” in 2011, marking the first time a charity ever received the recognition. Fortune has twice featured Best in the “40 under 40” list of “business’s hottest rising stars.”

“Charles Best and DonorsChoose.org are blazing trails in the arena of philanthropic funding for public education,” said June Henton, dean of the College of Human Sciences at Auburn. “His work is allowing teachers the opportunity to bring inventive educational supplies into their classrooms without having to fund them out of their own pockets. DonorsChoose.org is helping the public make an investment in classrooms in their local communities and beyond.”

The Women’s Philanthropy Board, the flagship division of the Cary Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, was established in 2002. The organization has been the inspiration for the development of a minor in philanthropy and nonprofit studies in the College of Human Sciences; Camp iCare, a summer camp for kids age 6-12; and REAL Cents REAL Change, a learning series and summer residential camp for teens ages 13-18.